Andrew has provided the following update on the Community First Responder scheme with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS).
Andew explained on Facebook:
I am spending much of today on duty as a Community First Responder in the Yorkshire Ambulance Service first responder scheme I set up for the Goole, Hook and Airmyn area sum 8 years ago.
As volunteer First Responders we are fully trained by the Ambulance Service and attend serious incidents such as cardiac arrests, strokes, diabetic collapses, difficulty breathing and more besides. We attend those incidents with our kit bag which includes oxygen therapy, defibrillators, airways etc etc. We are never sent instead of an ambulance but as well as.
Being embedded in our local communities we are often able to arrive on scene more quickly than ambulance crews which in the case of situations such as a cardiac arrest where minutes and seconds count, can make a big difference to a patient's outcomes.
All volunteers are fully trained and receive on-going training and assessment throughout the year. We respond from our own homes when on duty and ask volunteers to commit a minimum of about 4 hours per week.
Given current issues, recruitment is presently suspended until the training can be recommenced. However, we do not want to lose the enthusiasm that exists to help the NHS at the moment so we are compiling a list of people who are interested for when recruitment begins.
We are presently relying on a small number of volunteers and as we emerge from Covid-19 we want to be in a position to up our cover and number of volunteers so we are taking down the details of those who interested so that we can be first in line to train new volunteers when recruitment commences.
Please look at the link below about what we do and then drop me a line to brigg.goole@gmail.com so that we can register your interest and keep you posted for when recruitment starts again.
https://www.yas.nhs.uk/get-involved/community-first-responders/
